ABU DHABI // Regional governments are being warned to beef up the protection of military and government satellite communications in the face of a rising tide of cyberattacks.
"Cybersecurity is a problem all over the world," said John Sheldon, the president of Torridon Group, an independent space and cyberspace consulting firm based in Washington.
"But there is problem in the Middle East in general because there aren't necessarily universal standards ... in critical sectors such as banking, oil and gas, and communications."
He was speaking on the sidelines of the Milsatcom Middle East conference, which ran alongside the Global Space and Satellite Forum in Abu Dhabi yesterday.
Mr Sheldon said the problem was global. "Cybersecurity threats against satellite-related systems should be taken seriously," he said. "[They] are becoming more sophisticated and more aggressive in attacking systems."
Adopting a simple set of protocols would defeat 80 per cent of hacker threats. "They can be easily thwarted if you take basic cybersecurity guidelines," he said. "If you can get rid of that 80 per cent threat environment, you're only worrying about the big stuff that requires more specialist help. Governments should provide guidelines and actions of enforcing that."
In the UAE, companies in various sectors have started getting together to identify the generic threats and agree on ways to deal with them.
"That's encouraging, but we need the government to step in at some point, adopt standards and appoint a ministry or agency to deal with them."
Last year, a cyberattack on the Saudi Arabian firm Aramco wiped out data on 30,000 of its computers. "The Middle East has a problem," said Mr Sheldon. "There were sloppy cybersecurity practices that made it easier to get in so it's about installing a cybersecurity culture. It's not enough to just buy the latest cybersecurity software."
Technical measures alone are necessary but not sufficient. "The threats have become more sophisticated. People are complacent about it, but when you're dealing with information that's valuable to you, it's important," he said. "If you think you're not vulnerable to an attack or exploitation, think again."
Another major issue facing governments is the jamming of satellite communications. "Threats to military satellite communications include interference, jamming, eavesdropping and traffic spoofing," said Jean-Noel Barreaud, the Satcom marketing manager at Thales Communications and Security.
"Despite it not being perceived as a high threat, it has a major impact on the system availability and it is not acceptable on military satcom systems. So it is necessary to implement anti-jam technologies on critical military and government satcom systems."
While most breakdowns in satellite communication have mundane causes, the proportion of failures that are caused by malfeasance is on the rise. "We're seeing a rise in purposeful interference in this region," said Mr Sheldon. "Four to five years ago, three per cent of interference was purposeful, but now it's up to nine per cent."
He said more advanced technologies and more stringent controls on interference had to be put in place. "We need better geolocation, co-operation and technologies so we can actually pinpoint where the jamming is coming from," he said.
cmalek@thenational.ae
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The trip
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The National's picks
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5.10pm: Continous
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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VEZEETA PROFILE
Date started: 2012
Founder: Amir Barsoum
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: HealthTech / MedTech
Size: 300 employees
Funding: $22.6 million (as of September 2018)
Investors: Technology Development Fund, Silicon Badia, Beco Capital, Vostok New Ventures, Endeavour Catalyst, Crescent Enterprises’ CE-Ventures, Saudi Technology Ventures and IFC
TOUCH RULES
Touch is derived from rugby league. Teams consist of up to 14 players with a maximum of six on the field at any time.
Teams can make as many substitutions as they want during the 40 minute matches.
Similar to rugby league, the attacking team has six attempts - or touches - before possession changes over.
A touch is any contact between the player with the ball and a defender, and must be with minimum force.
After a touch the player performs a “roll-ball” - similar to the play-the-ball in league - stepping over or rolling the ball between the feet.
At the roll-ball, the defenders have to retreat a minimum of five metres.
A touchdown is scored when an attacking player places the ball on or over the score-line.
What are the influencer academy modules?
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